This invention relates to educational toys.
It is known to use two way to teach children to recognize animals or numbers or the like and numerous games are available for such purposes. In the prior art games of this type, the matching of words with shapes or the location of numbers or the like is relatively passive, being performed on a vertical or horizontal game board. This type of learning device has a disadvantage in that there is insufficient activity for energetic children to hold their attention.
Games are known in which children hop from place to place such as a well-known game called "Hop Scotch" in which a child hops from square to square until the child reaches a selected square. In the prior art games of this type, the child throws an object on a set of squares each of which is numbered and then hops through the squares and back, picking the object up on the way back. This prior art game has a disadvantage in that the learning function is relatively inactive since the child is not forced to select a particular number or image in abstract and hop to that number or mirage relying only on recognition and knowledge of the number or image. Some prior art games of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,773,864, 4,185,819, 3,768,809, 3,515,385, 3,139,182 and German patents 2,339,207, 2,716,219 and 3,021,711.